Andrew Bales

Into It: Olympic Medals For Art?

Andrew Bales — Tue, 18 Jun 2013 10:00:00 +0000

A lot has changed for the Olympics over the last century, including the focus on an entire discipline.

The Olympics from 1912 to 1952 weren’t just about sports, but art. Medals were given out for painting, sculpture, literature, music and architecture. The only caveat being that the pieces must be inspired by sport.

Into It: Whatever Happened To The Segway?

Andrew Bales — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 12:23:06 +0000

The rumors began circulating in 2001 about something called The Ginger Project, or simply “It.” Talk of changing the world, of reorganizing cities, of "Reinventing the Wheel"—as Time Magazine called it in one article title—all of these hopes were in the air.

Into It: The Resurgence Of Records

Andrew Bales — Tue, 21 May 2013 10:30:00 +0000

It seems like every new technology tries its best to kill off the vinyl record.

Into It: The Most Remote Inhabited Island

Andrew Bales — Tue, 07 May 2013 11:00:00 +0000

From the nearest port in South Africa, it takes six days on a fishing boat to reach the small island of Tristan da Cunha. Fifteen hundred miles out into the South Atlantic, simple white homes with bright colored roofs sit in rows on green fields. A sign reads “Welcome to the remotest island,” and behind it Queen Mary’s Peak towers nearly 7,000 feet high.

The most remote inhabited island stayed mostly under the radar for two hundred years.

Into It: History Of The Horse Companion

Andrew Bales — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:25:59 +0000

Horses get lonely, just like the rest of us. Left isolated, they become withdrawn and take on bad habits called stable vices.

Into It: The Rise Of The Pedestrian Joyride

Andrew Bales — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 11:00:00 +0000

The idea of the escalator has been around a lot longer than a working model.

Nathan Ames first patented “Revolving Stairs” in 1859, though he didn’t specify materials or have a practical use in mind.

Into It: The Worst Of Super Nintendo

Andrew Bales — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 12:00:00 +0000

Super Nintendo changed the gaming world, but not always for the better.

The 16-bit gaming boom took over the early nineties. It gave us classics like Super Mario World, but it also emboldened marketers to dream up spin-offs. In these crossovers, the best parts about pop stars, TV shows, and movies were often abandoned. The result was a string of glitchy maps and questionable plot.

Into It: The Strange Life Of Discontinued Breakfast Cereals

Andrew Bales — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 13:35:15 +0000

The cereal aisle is run by kids. It’s their purchasing power that brings TV shows, movies, and even stranger products together with the barons of breakfast.

Mr. T cereal debuted in 1984 and was essentially T-shaped captain crunch. But it got a little more cool when it teamed up with Pee Wee’s Big Adventure.

When movies inspire cereals, the commercials sound like trailers. The kids become part of the action and eat like the stars.

Into It: The Imaginary Island Of California

Andrew Bales — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 14:40:45 +0000

California’s San Andreas fault is slowly shifting LA away from the mainland. But we don’t have to look to the future to imagine a disjointed coastline. Instead we can look to the past, to the maps of the 17th and 18th centuries that share a strange discrepancy: the inclusion of the Island of California.

Into It: Henry Ford Builds Colony In Brazilian Forest

Andrew Bales — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 12:19:00 +0000

If there's a pilgrimage for the industrialized world, it probably ends in the Amazon Rainforest, at the center of a abandoned town called Fordlandia.